Book Review: The Seven Daughters of Eve

The book is The Seven Daughters of Eve, by Bryan Sykes, and it was published in 2001. Sykes is an Oxford professor with an amazing gift for writing in a way that ordinary folks can understand.

This book describes in storylike detail his search for ways to use mitochondrial DNA to trace ancient populations. He led the team that finally showed that homo sapiens is distinct from Neanderthal man, and that the Polynesians have to have populated the South Pacific from Asia rather than from the Americas. Most fascinating, he shows in this book how the use of mtDNA traced the spread of early hunter-gatherers out from Africa into Europe, and how anyone can detect one line of ancestry – maternal, as in mother to her mother to her mother, etc. — back to one of the "seven daughters,” real people who were actually the mothers of nearly everyone with European ancestry. His particular challenge was European ancestry, but his lab now can test people from anywhere. If anyone saw an article about Leonard Pitt's return to Africa, in it will be clear that this same method was used in helping him find one maternal tribe.

I know that DNA can't solve most genealogical riddles, but I'm going to have mine tested. Even if you don't care a fig for genealogy and just like a good scientific yarn, be sure to read this book.

p.s. later – I did have my maternal ancestry checked, and it's disappointingly mainstream, but it's good to know. As a result, I have an extra book which I'd be glad to loan out.

— Karin McAdams